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xocetaceans
xocetaceans's Journal
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June 6, 2013
Feinstein Defends & (the) Obama Administration Confirms Massive Surveillance Program...
Learning To Love The Matrix: Feinstein Defends Warrantless Surveillance of All Citizens
Published: June 6, 2013
As expected, in facing yet another attack on civil liberties by the Obama Administration, Democratic members are choosing personality over principle. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D., CA) has come out to assure the public that it is a good thing that the Administration is spying on them and encourage them to accept such surveillance as the new normal. In the meantime, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R, Ga), insists that the surveillance must be fine because “to my knowledge we have not had any citizen who has registered a complaint relative to the gathering of this information.” Of course, it has been secret and just last February the Administration succeeded in blocking an effort of dozens of citizens and groups challenging such surveillance programs before the Supreme Court.
Feinstein is notorious among civil libertarians as someone who knew of many of the abuses during the Bush Administration, including possible knowledge of the torture program and warrantless surveillance programs. However, the Administration is clearly putting the push on to get members in front of cameras to claim that that surveillance stopped a plot. It is an effort to get citizens to give up this core liberty. Of course, if you strip every civil liberty, you can claim additional plots. These members are responsible, again, for a failure to use oversight authority to protect civil liberties. They have clearly been given the message to try to change the story in the critical first 24-hours in classic Bush (now Obama) terms: yes we put everyone under surveillance but it paid off.
Feinstein has continued her dubious record of leading the charge against liberty — a curious role for the Democratic senator from a state like California.
My favorite however is Chambliss who seems clueless that the Obama Administration has classified information needed to challenge these laws and no citizens had information to complain about . . . because Chambliss and his colleagues kept it from their constituents.
...
http://jonathanturley.org/2013/06/06/learning-to-love-the-matrix-feinstein-defends-warrantless-surveillance-of-all-citizens/
Published: June 6, 2013
As expected, in facing yet another attack on civil liberties by the Obama Administration, Democratic members are choosing personality over principle. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D., CA) has come out to assure the public that it is a good thing that the Administration is spying on them and encourage them to accept such surveillance as the new normal. In the meantime, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R, Ga), insists that the surveillance must be fine because “to my knowledge we have not had any citizen who has registered a complaint relative to the gathering of this information.” Of course, it has been secret and just last February the Administration succeeded in blocking an effort of dozens of citizens and groups challenging such surveillance programs before the Supreme Court.
Feinstein is notorious among civil libertarians as someone who knew of many of the abuses during the Bush Administration, including possible knowledge of the torture program and warrantless surveillance programs. However, the Administration is clearly putting the push on to get members in front of cameras to claim that that surveillance stopped a plot. It is an effort to get citizens to give up this core liberty. Of course, if you strip every civil liberty, you can claim additional plots. These members are responsible, again, for a failure to use oversight authority to protect civil liberties. They have clearly been given the message to try to change the story in the critical first 24-hours in classic Bush (now Obama) terms: yes we put everyone under surveillance but it paid off.
Feinstein has continued her dubious record of leading the charge against liberty — a curious role for the Democratic senator from a state like California.
My favorite however is Chambliss who seems clueless that the Obama Administration has classified information needed to challenge these laws and no citizens had information to complain about . . . because Chambliss and his colleagues kept it from their constituents.
...
http://jonathanturley.org/2013/06/06/learning-to-love-the-matrix-feinstein-defends-warrantless-surveillance-of-all-citizens/
Obama Administration Confirms Massive Surveillance Program Of U.S. Citizens
Published: June 6, 2013
While the media in the United States (with some notable exceptions) have been criticized for relatively soft coverage of attacks on civil liberties by the Obama Administration, the British press appears to be filling the gap. The Guardian is reporting on a massive surveillance program by the Obama Administration where the government has ordered Verizon (and presumably other carriers) to turn over all calls made within the United States and calls between the United States and other countries. The surveillance was conducted under an order from our controversial secret court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and demanded by the Justice Department and the FBI. The Administration has confirmed the existence of the program — another blow to civil liberties under Attorney General Eric Holder and this president. It also adds another area where Obama officials appear less than candid with Congress. [Update: USA Today first revealed aspects of this program in 2006]
The order signed by Judge Roger Vinson requires the company to turn over the phone numbers, location, duration, time and unique identifiers for all calls for all citizens. There is no effort to confine the search for individuals connected to any investigation. It is a sweeping surveillance on all citizens. Of course, just as Democrats have remained quiet over the recent attacks on the free press, it is not clear if even this abuse will generate opposition in Congress. Civil libertarians have been complaining for years about these programs and have met a wall of silence from Democrats protecting President Obama and Eric Holder.
In February, the Administration succeeded in blocking a challenge to its surveillance policies by arguing that any confirmation of such programs would put American lives at risk. Now that the case is dismissed, they have simply acknowledged the program. The decision is Clapper v. Amnesty International, No. 11-1025, and it is a true nightmare for civil liberties. The Supreme Court rejected the standing of civil liberties groups and citizens to challenge the Obama Administration’s surveillance programs. President Obama has long been criticized for his opposition to such lawsuits and his Justice Department has continued a successful attack on the ability of citizens to challenge the unconstitutional actions of their government in the war on terror. The 5-4 opinion by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. insulates such programs from judicial review in yet another narrowing of standing rules.
Alito rejected the ability of an array of journalists, lawyers and human rights advocates to challenge the constitutionality of the 2008 law allowing secret surveillance without meeting constitutional standards of probable cause. Alito simply said that the parties could not prove that they were subject to surveillance — since the Obama Administration has classified such evidence — and insisted that their fears and precautionary actions are merely efforts to “manufacture standing by incurring costs in anticipation of nonimminent harms.”
...
http://jonathanturley.org/2013/06/06/obama-administration-confirms-massive-surveillance-program-by-nsa/
Published: June 6, 2013
While the media in the United States (with some notable exceptions) have been criticized for relatively soft coverage of attacks on civil liberties by the Obama Administration, the British press appears to be filling the gap. The Guardian is reporting on a massive surveillance program by the Obama Administration where the government has ordered Verizon (and presumably other carriers) to turn over all calls made within the United States and calls between the United States and other countries. The surveillance was conducted under an order from our controversial secret court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and demanded by the Justice Department and the FBI. The Administration has confirmed the existence of the program — another blow to civil liberties under Attorney General Eric Holder and this president. It also adds another area where Obama officials appear less than candid with Congress. [Update: USA Today first revealed aspects of this program in 2006]
The order signed by Judge Roger Vinson requires the company to turn over the phone numbers, location, duration, time and unique identifiers for all calls for all citizens. There is no effort to confine the search for individuals connected to any investigation. It is a sweeping surveillance on all citizens. Of course, just as Democrats have remained quiet over the recent attacks on the free press, it is not clear if even this abuse will generate opposition in Congress. Civil libertarians have been complaining for years about these programs and have met a wall of silence from Democrats protecting President Obama and Eric Holder.
In February, the Administration succeeded in blocking a challenge to its surveillance policies by arguing that any confirmation of such programs would put American lives at risk. Now that the case is dismissed, they have simply acknowledged the program. The decision is Clapper v. Amnesty International, No. 11-1025, and it is a true nightmare for civil liberties. The Supreme Court rejected the standing of civil liberties groups and citizens to challenge the Obama Administration’s surveillance programs. President Obama has long been criticized for his opposition to such lawsuits and his Justice Department has continued a successful attack on the ability of citizens to challenge the unconstitutional actions of their government in the war on terror. The 5-4 opinion by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. insulates such programs from judicial review in yet another narrowing of standing rules.
Alito rejected the ability of an array of journalists, lawyers and human rights advocates to challenge the constitutionality of the 2008 law allowing secret surveillance without meeting constitutional standards of probable cause. Alito simply said that the parties could not prove that they were subject to surveillance — since the Obama Administration has classified such evidence — and insisted that their fears and precautionary actions are merely efforts to “manufacture standing by incurring costs in anticipation of nonimminent harms.”
...
http://jonathanturley.org/2013/06/06/obama-administration-confirms-massive-surveillance-program-by-nsa/
Transcript: Dianne Feinstein, Saxby Chambliss explain, defend NSA phone records program
By Ed O'Keefe
Published: June 6, 2013
Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), who lead the Senate Intelligence Committee, spoke with reporters Thursday morning at a hastily arranged news conference to explain and defend the National Security Agency’s collection of Verizon telephone records.
An unofficial transcript of the exchange appears below:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein: I just had an opportunity to review the Guardian article and I’d like to make the following points.
As far as I know, this is the exact three month renewal of what has been the case for the past seven years. This renewal is carried out by the FISA Court under the business records section of the Patriot Act. Therefore, it is lawful.
...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/06/06/transcript-dianne-feinstein-saxby-chambliss-explain-defend-nsa-phone-records-program/
By Ed O'Keefe
Published: June 6, 2013
Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), who lead the Senate Intelligence Committee, spoke with reporters Thursday morning at a hastily arranged news conference to explain and defend the National Security Agency’s collection of Verizon telephone records.
An unofficial transcript of the exchange appears below:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein: I just had an opportunity to review the Guardian article and I’d like to make the following points.
As far as I know, this is the exact three month renewal of what has been the case for the past seven years. This renewal is carried out by the FISA Court under the business records section of the Patriot Act. Therefore, it is lawful.
...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/06/06/transcript-dianne-feinstein-saxby-chambliss-explain-defend-nsa-phone-records-program/
May 17, 2013
If only everyone were allowed to carry around loaded weapons....
Gunfire Shatters Quiet at AC Library: Retired Police Officer Shoots Self in Foot...
Gunfire Shatters Quiet at AC Library
Retired Police Officer Shoots Self in Foot
Appleton City Journal, May 10, 2013, Volume 133, Number 3
by Cindy Arms, Sac-Osage Publishing Staff
Gunfire startled librarians and visitors alike around noon on Saturday, April 27, when Rich Bauer accidentally discharged a weapon he was carrying while visiting the Appleton City Library. Bauer was injured by a bullet through his foot and drove himself to the hospital. No one else was injured.
According to the police report, Bauer, who was doing some work at the library, had a semi-automatic weapon in his hand as Police Chief Bill Smith entered the library. Smith stated he was on his way to the library to meet with Bauer and was nearby when he heard five shots and smelled the odor of gun powder. According to the report, when Smith saw Bauer, he said, "I think I shot myself in the foot."
...
http://www.iclassifiedsnetwork.com/editionviewer/default.aspx?Edition=8d77972b-de18-4229-931a-4f9b83fa4319
Retired Police Officer Shoots Self in Foot
Appleton City Journal, May 10, 2013, Volume 133, Number 3
by Cindy Arms, Sac-Osage Publishing Staff
Gunfire startled librarians and visitors alike around noon on Saturday, April 27, when Rich Bauer accidentally discharged a weapon he was carrying while visiting the Appleton City Library. Bauer was injured by a bullet through his foot and drove himself to the hospital. No one else was injured.
According to the police report, Bauer, who was doing some work at the library, had a semi-automatic weapon in his hand as Police Chief Bill Smith entered the library. Smith stated he was on his way to the library to meet with Bauer and was nearby when he heard five shots and smelled the odor of gun powder. According to the report, when Smith saw Bauer, he said, "I think I shot myself in the foot."
...
http://www.iclassifiedsnetwork.com/editionviewer/default.aspx?Edition=8d77972b-de18-4229-931a-4f9b83fa4319
If only everyone were allowed to carry around loaded weapons....
May 17, 2013
Here is a passage whose context is the war in Algeria from 1954-1962: the passage is excerpted from Counterinsurgency Warfare by David Galula:
For more on the late David Galula, one may see this retrospective:
Greenwald: Washington gets explicit: its 'war on terror' is permanent
Washington gets explicit: its 'war on terror' is permanent
Senior Obama officials tell the US Senate: the 'war', in limitless form, will continue for 'at least' another decade - or two
Glenn Greenwald
guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 May 2013 07.54 EDT
Last October, senior Obama officials anonymously unveiled to the Washington Post their newly minted "disposition matrix", a complex computer system that will be used to determine how a terrorist suspect will be "disposed of": indefinite detention, prosecution in a real court, assassination-by-CIA-drones, etc. Their rationale for why this was needed now, a full 12 years after the 9/11 attack:
On Thursday, the Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on whether the statutory basis for this "war" - the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) - should be revised (meaning: expanded). This is how Wired's Spencer Ackerman (soon to be the Guardian US's national security editor) described the most significant exchange:
...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/17/endless-war-on-terror-obama
Senior Obama officials tell the US Senate: the 'war', in limitless form, will continue for 'at least' another decade - or two
Glenn Greenwald
guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 May 2013 07.54 EDT
Last October, senior Obama officials anonymously unveiled to the Washington Post their newly minted "disposition matrix", a complex computer system that will be used to determine how a terrorist suspect will be "disposed of": indefinite detention, prosecution in a real court, assassination-by-CIA-drones, etc. Their rationale for why this was needed now, a full 12 years after the 9/11 attack:
"Among senior Obama administration officials, there is a broad consensus that such operations are likely to be extended at least another decade. Given the way al-Qaida continues to metastasize, some officials said no clear end is in sight. . . . That timeline suggests that the United States has reached only the midpoint of what was once known as the global war on terrorism."
On Thursday, the Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on whether the statutory basis for this "war" - the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) - should be revised (meaning: expanded). This is how Wired's Spencer Ackerman (soon to be the Guardian US's national security editor) described the most significant exchange:
"Asked at a Senate hearing today how long the war on terrorism will last, Michael Sheehan, the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, answered, 'At least 10 to 20 years.' . . . A spokeswoman, Army Col. Anne Edgecomb, clarified that Sheehan meant the conflict is likely to last 10 to 20 more years from today - atop the 12 years that the conflict has already lasted. Welcome to America's Thirty Years War."
...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/17/endless-war-on-terror-obama
Here is a passage whose context is the war in Algeria from 1954-1962: the passage is excerpted from Counterinsurgency Warfare by David Galula:
"Essential though it is, the military action is secondary to the political one, its primary purpose being to afford the political power enough freedom to work safely with the population."
(Counterinsurgency Warfare (Praeger, 2006), p. 63)
http://www.amazon.com/Counterinsurgency-Warfare-Theory-Practice-Classics/dp/0275993035
(Counterinsurgency Warfare (Praeger, 2006), p. 63)
http://www.amazon.com/Counterinsurgency-Warfare-Theory-Practice-Classics/dp/0275993035
For more on the late David Galula, one may see this retrospective:
DAVID GALULA: HIS LIFE AND INTELLECTUAL CONTEXT
Ann Marlowe August 2010
INTRODUCTION
It is a safe bet that if the United States had not found itself—or to be more accurate, identified it-
self—as fighting an insurgency in Iraq sometime in 2003, “David Galula” would still be a nearly forgotten
name. In 2003, his two books on counterinsurgency had been out of print for forty years. One, Pacification
in Algeria, had never really been published at all; written as a study for RAND, it was classified until 2005.
One of the characteristics which makes Galula’s work so robust—its infusion with both the French and
Anglo-American counterinsurgency traditions—also left him an intellectual orphan. In his lifetime, Galula
had the bad luck to be an expert who wrote in English about a conflict mainly of interest to the French. Still
worse, the Algerian war was tainted for Americans by the shadows of colonialism and torture. Though Galula
was in the United States during the early years of the American involvement in the Vietnam War, he
seems to have had only a fleeting influence on those who formed our strategy.
In France, counterinsurgency theory had enjoyed a great flourishing in the 1950s and 1960s, as the French
Army fought successively in Indochina, Suez, and Algeria. But the stars of this movement, a group of colonels
including Roger Trinquier and Charles Lacheroy,were already famous before Galula began to write. In
the context of the French tradition of guerre revolutionnaire, there was little novelty in Galula’s approach.
By 2006, when FM 3-24 brought Anglophone writers back into the game, the French had less reason to be absorbed in counterinsurgency studies. So even after Galula’s works were republished in English — and translated for the first time into French, nearly 40 years after his death—he remains almost unknown to the nation whose uniform he wore for most of his adult life.
...
http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB1016.pdf
Ann Marlowe August 2010
INTRODUCTION
It is a safe bet that if the United States had not found itself—or to be more accurate, identified it-
self—as fighting an insurgency in Iraq sometime in 2003, “David Galula” would still be a nearly forgotten
name. In 2003, his two books on counterinsurgency had been out of print for forty years. One, Pacification
in Algeria, had never really been published at all; written as a study for RAND, it was classified until 2005.
One of the characteristics which makes Galula’s work so robust—its infusion with both the French and
Anglo-American counterinsurgency traditions—also left him an intellectual orphan. In his lifetime, Galula
had the bad luck to be an expert who wrote in English about a conflict mainly of interest to the French. Still
worse, the Algerian war was tainted for Americans by the shadows of colonialism and torture. Though Galula
was in the United States during the early years of the American involvement in the Vietnam War, he
seems to have had only a fleeting influence on those who formed our strategy.
In France, counterinsurgency theory had enjoyed a great flourishing in the 1950s and 1960s, as the French
Army fought successively in Indochina, Suez, and Algeria. But the stars of this movement, a group of colonels
including Roger Trinquier and Charles Lacheroy,were already famous before Galula began to write. In
the context of the French tradition of guerre revolutionnaire, there was little novelty in Galula’s approach.
By 2006, when FM 3-24 brought Anglophone writers back into the game, the French had less reason to be absorbed in counterinsurgency studies. So even after Galula’s works were republished in English — and translated for the first time into French, nearly 40 years after his death—he remains almost unknown to the nation whose uniform he wore for most of his adult life.
...
http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB1016.pdf
May 15, 2013
Noteworthy is Lauer's smooth transition away from anything that might require a thoughtful response from the guest. At this point, Lauer could have been replaced by a fluffy bunny in Wolf Blitzer glasses and the interview would have been equally well done.
One should recall that Donald Rumsfeld knows about protecting people who are put at risk:
So, here (apparently) is Rumsfeld's Rule on protecting people who are put at risk:
For a more complete presentation of Rumsfeld's statement, one may consult this article:
Matt Lauer Interviews Donald Rumsfeld who Releases "Rumsfeld's Rules"...
As is to be expected, Matt Lauer conducted a short, fluffy interview and offered no meaningful resistance or forceful counterpoints to Rumsfeld's statements. Here is an excerpt that may call to mind one of the many things that Rumsfeld has said in the past:
NBC's Lauer Asks Rumsfeld if Benghazi Scandal is Just GOP Trying to 'Discredit' Hillary
By Kyle Drennen | May 14, 2013 | 17:33
...
LAUER: Do you think that the administration has answered enough questions on it? Do you think it's possible that some Republicans are trying to use this to discredit Hillary Clinton in case she decides to run for president in 2016?
RUMSFELD: No. I think that's a side – that's the sideshow, is the Hillary Clinton piece of it. No, the first problem was if you're going to put people at risk, you have to try to protect them. And the British took their people out because they knew they were at risk. And the Americans were left in and they weren't provided the kind of security that they needed, obviously, because they're dead.
LAUER: Let's turn to your book. Lots of rules and maxims in here. Some make perfect common sense, "Set your goals, learn from those who have been there, trust your instincts." This one caught my eye, though, Mr. Secretary, "It is easier to get into something than to get out of it."
RUMSFELD: It's true.
...
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/kyle-drennen/2013/05/14/nbcs-lauer-asks-rumsfeld-if-benghazi-scandal-just-gop-trying-discredit
Noteworthy is Lauer's smooth transition away from anything that might require a thoughtful response from the guest. At this point, Lauer could have been replaced by a fluffy bunny in Wolf Blitzer glasses and the interview would have been equally well done.
One should recall that Donald Rumsfeld knows about protecting people who are put at risk:
So, here (apparently) is Rumsfeld's Rule on protecting people who are put at risk:
"You go to war with the army you have..uh..not the army you might want
or wish to have at a later time."
--Donald Rumsfeld, Camp Buehring, Kuwait, December 8, 2004
or wish to have at a later time."
--Donald Rumsfeld, Camp Buehring, Kuwait, December 8, 2004
For a more complete presentation of Rumsfeld's statement, one may consult this article:
Iraq-Bound Troops Confront Rumsfeld Over Lack of Armor
By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: December 8, 2004
CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait, Dec. 8 - In an extraordinary exchange at this remote desert camp, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld found himself on the defensive today, fielding pointed questions from Iraq-bound troops who complained that they were being sent into combat with insufficient protection and aging equipment.
Specialist Thomas Wilson, a scout with a Tennessee National Guard unit scheduled to roll into Iraq this week, said soldiers had to scrounge through local landfills here for pieces of rusty scrap metal and bulletproof glass - what they called "hillbilly armor" - to bolt on to their trucks for protection against roadside bombs in Iraq.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/08/international/middleeast/08cnd-rumsfeld.html?_r=0
By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: December 8, 2004
CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait, Dec. 8 - In an extraordinary exchange at this remote desert camp, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld found himself on the defensive today, fielding pointed questions from Iraq-bound troops who complained that they were being sent into combat with insufficient protection and aging equipment.
Specialist Thomas Wilson, a scout with a Tennessee National Guard unit scheduled to roll into Iraq this week, said soldiers had to scrounge through local landfills here for pieces of rusty scrap metal and bulletproof glass - what they called "hillbilly armor" - to bolt on to their trucks for protection against roadside bombs in Iraq.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/08/international/middleeast/08cnd-rumsfeld.html?_r=0
May 2, 2013
An APS article on the subject:
Patrick Bruno's commentary:
Time Crystals: Original Articles, an APS Commentary, and Bruno's Commentary...
To see exactly what is being discussed, one needs to read these papers and the appended commentaries:
The original papers:
Classical Time Crystals
Alfred Shapere and Frank Wilczek
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40502 USA
Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 USA
We consider the possibility that classical dynamical systems display motion in their lowest energy
state, forming a time analogue of crystalline spatial order. Challenges facing that idea are identified
and overcome. We display arbitrary orbits of an angular variable as lowest-energy trajectories for
nonsingular Lagrangian systems. Dynamics within orbits of broken symmetry provide a natural
arena for formation of time crystals. We exhibit models of that kind, including a model with
traveling density waves
In this paper we will investigate a cluster of issues around the question of whether time-independent, con-
servative classical systems might exhibit motion in their lowest energy states. Fully quantum systems are the sub-
ject of a companion paper [1]. Related issues have been raised in a cosmological context [2][3], but those investi-
gations consider quite different aspects, in which the time dependence introduced by the expansion of the universe
plays a significant role. (The term \time crystal" has been used previously to describe periodic phenomena in other contexts [4, 5].)
...
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1202.2537v2.pdf
Alfred Shapere and Frank Wilczek
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40502 USA
Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 USA
We consider the possibility that classical dynamical systems display motion in their lowest energy
state, forming a time analogue of crystalline spatial order. Challenges facing that idea are identified
and overcome. We display arbitrary orbits of an angular variable as lowest-energy trajectories for
nonsingular Lagrangian systems. Dynamics within orbits of broken symmetry provide a natural
arena for formation of time crystals. We exhibit models of that kind, including a model with
traveling density waves
In this paper we will investigate a cluster of issues around the question of whether time-independent, con-
servative classical systems might exhibit motion in their lowest energy states. Fully quantum systems are the sub-
ject of a companion paper [1]. Related issues have been raised in a cosmological context [2][3], but those investi-
gations consider quite different aspects, in which the time dependence introduced by the expansion of the universe
plays a significant role. (The term \time crystal" has been used previously to describe periodic phenomena in other contexts [4, 5].)
...
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1202.2537v2.pdf
Quantum Time Crystals
Frank Wilczek
Center for Theoretical Physics
Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge Massachusetts 02139 USA
Some subtleties and apparent difficulties associated with the notion of spontaneous breaking of time translation symmetry in quantum mechanics are identified and resolved. A model exhibiting that phenomenon is displayed. The possibility and significance of breaking of imaginary time translation symmetry is discussed.
Symmetry and its spontaneous breaking is a central theme in modern physics. Perhaps no symmetry is more fundamental than time translation symmetry, since time translation symmetry underlies both the reproducibility of experience and, within the standard dynamical frameworks, the conservation of energy. So it is natural to consider the question, whether time translation symmetry might be spontaneously broken in a closed quantum-mechanical system. That is the question we will consider, and answer affirmatively, here.
...
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1202.2539v2.pdf
Frank Wilczek
Center for Theoretical Physics
Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge Massachusetts 02139 USA
Some subtleties and apparent difficulties associated with the notion of spontaneous breaking of time translation symmetry in quantum mechanics are identified and resolved. A model exhibiting that phenomenon is displayed. The possibility and significance of breaking of imaginary time translation symmetry is discussed.
Symmetry and its spontaneous breaking is a central theme in modern physics. Perhaps no symmetry is more fundamental than time translation symmetry, since time translation symmetry underlies both the reproducibility of experience and, within the standard dynamical frameworks, the conservation of energy. So it is natural to consider the question, whether time translation symmetry might be spontaneously broken in a closed quantum-mechanical system. That is the question we will consider, and answer affirmatively, here.
...
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1202.2539v2.pdf
An APS article on the subject:
Viewpoint: Crystals of Time
Jakub Zakrzewski, Marian Smoluchowski Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, 30-059 Krakow, Poland
Published October 15, 2012 | Physics 5, 116 (2012) | DOI: 10.1103/Physics.5.116
Researchers propose how to realize time crystals, structures whose lowest-energy states are periodic both in time and space.
Spontaneous symmetry breaking is ubiquitous in nature. It occurs when the ground state (classically, the lowest energy state) of a system is less symmetrical than the equations governing the system. Examples in which the symmetry is broken in excited states are common—one just needs to think of Kepler’s elliptical orbits, which break the spherical symmetry of the gravitational force. But spontaneous symmetry breaking refers instead to a symmetry broken by the lowest energy state of a system. Well-known examples are the Higgs boson (due to the breaking of gauge symmetries), ferromagnets and antiferromagnets, liquid crystals, and superconductors. While most examples come from the quantum world, spontaneous symmetry breaking can also occur in classical systems [1].
Three articles in Physical Review Letters investigate a fascinating manifestation of spontaneous symmetry breaking: the possibility of realizing time crystals, structures whose lowest-energy states are periodic in time, much like ordinary crystals are periodic in space. Alfred Shapere at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, and Frank Wilczek at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge [2], provide the theoretical demonstration that classical time crystals can exist and, in a separate paper, Wilczek [3] extends these ideas to quantum time crystals. Tongcang Li at the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues [4] propose an experimental realization of quantum time crystals with cold ions trapped in a cylindrical potential.
In nature, the most common manifestation of spontaneous symmetry breaking is the existence of crystals. Here continuous translational symmetry in space is broken and replaced by the discrete symmetry of the periodic crystal. Since we have gotten used to considering space and time on equal footing, one may ask whether crystalline periodicity can also occur in the dimension of time. Put differently, can time crystals—systems with time-periodic ground states that break translational time symmetry—exist? This is precisely the question asked by Alfred Shapere and Frank Wilczek.
How can one create a time crystal? The key idea of the authors, both for the classical and quantum case, is to search for systems that are spatially ordered and move perpetually in their ground state in an oscillatory or rotational way, as shown in Fig. 1. In the time domain, the system will periodically return to the same initial state.
...
http://physics.aps.org/articles/v5/116
Jakub Zakrzewski, Marian Smoluchowski Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, 30-059 Krakow, Poland
Published October 15, 2012 | Physics 5, 116 (2012) | DOI: 10.1103/Physics.5.116
Researchers propose how to realize time crystals, structures whose lowest-energy states are periodic both in time and space.
Spontaneous symmetry breaking is ubiquitous in nature. It occurs when the ground state (classically, the lowest energy state) of a system is less symmetrical than the equations governing the system. Examples in which the symmetry is broken in excited states are common—one just needs to think of Kepler’s elliptical orbits, which break the spherical symmetry of the gravitational force. But spontaneous symmetry breaking refers instead to a symmetry broken by the lowest energy state of a system. Well-known examples are the Higgs boson (due to the breaking of gauge symmetries), ferromagnets and antiferromagnets, liquid crystals, and superconductors. While most examples come from the quantum world, spontaneous symmetry breaking can also occur in classical systems [1].
Three articles in Physical Review Letters investigate a fascinating manifestation of spontaneous symmetry breaking: the possibility of realizing time crystals, structures whose lowest-energy states are periodic in time, much like ordinary crystals are periodic in space. Alfred Shapere at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, and Frank Wilczek at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge [2], provide the theoretical demonstration that classical time crystals can exist and, in a separate paper, Wilczek [3] extends these ideas to quantum time crystals. Tongcang Li at the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues [4] propose an experimental realization of quantum time crystals with cold ions trapped in a cylindrical potential.
In nature, the most common manifestation of spontaneous symmetry breaking is the existence of crystals. Here continuous translational symmetry in space is broken and replaced by the discrete symmetry of the periodic crystal. Since we have gotten used to considering space and time on equal footing, one may ask whether crystalline periodicity can also occur in the dimension of time. Put differently, can time crystals—systems with time-periodic ground states that break translational time symmetry—exist? This is precisely the question asked by Alfred Shapere and Frank Wilczek.
How can one create a time crystal? The key idea of the authors, both for the classical and quantum case, is to search for systems that are spatially ordered and move perpetually in their ground state in an oscillatory or rotational way, as shown in Fig. 1. In the time domain, the system will periodically return to the same initial state.
...
http://physics.aps.org/articles/v5/116
Patrick Bruno's commentary:
Comment on “Quantum Time Crystals”: a new paradigm or just another proposal of perpetuum mobile?
In a recent Letter [1], Wilczek proposes the existence of a new state of matter, “quantum time crystals”, defined
as systems which, in their quantum mechanical ground state, display a time-dependent behavior (periodic os-
cillation) of some physical observable. The proposal is based upon a model consisting of (discernible) particles
on an Aharonov-Bohm (AB) ring,
...
Patrick Bruno
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, BP 220, F-38043
Grenoble Cedex, France
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1210.4128v1.pdf
In a recent Letter [1], Wilczek proposes the existence of a new state of matter, “quantum time crystals”, defined
as systems which, in their quantum mechanical ground state, display a time-dependent behavior (periodic os-
cillation) of some physical observable. The proposal is based upon a model consisting of (discernible) particles
on an Aharonov-Bohm (AB) ring,
...
Patrick Bruno
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, BP 220, F-38043
Grenoble Cedex, France
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1210.4128v1.pdf
April 29, 2013
One should note the contrast between the above and this:
Supersonic Ping Pong Ball Cannon
Cub Scouts from Pack 119 shoot ping pong from PVC pipe cannon vaporizing watermelon
Beau Zimmer
6:20 PM, Apr 28, 2013
DES MOINES, Iowa- Have you ever dreamed of vaporizing a watermelon with a ping pong ball?
That was the mission for a group of 10 and 11 year-old Cub Scouts near Des Moines, Iowa on Thursday.
Cub Scout pack 119 built a 10 foot long supersonic ping pong ball cannon made out of PVC pipe. Turns out, the experiment was much more powerful than expected.
The ping pong ball was clocked at over 880 miles an hour. That's faster than the speed of sound!
...
http://www.wtsp.com/news/reporter/article/313795/79/WATCH-Cub-scouts-vaporize-watermelon-with-supersonic-ping-pong
Beau Zimmer
6:20 PM, Apr 28, 2013
DES MOINES, Iowa- Have you ever dreamed of vaporizing a watermelon with a ping pong ball?
That was the mission for a group of 10 and 11 year-old Cub Scouts near Des Moines, Iowa on Thursday.
Cub Scout pack 119 built a 10 foot long supersonic ping pong ball cannon made out of PVC pipe. Turns out, the experiment was much more powerful than expected.
The ping pong ball was clocked at over 880 miles an hour. That's faster than the speed of sound!
...
http://www.wtsp.com/news/reporter/article/313795/79/WATCH-Cub-scouts-vaporize-watermelon-with-supersonic-ping-pong
One should note the contrast between the above and this:
Florida Teen Girl Charged With Felony After Science Experiment Goes Bad
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2772508
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2772508
April 27, 2013
Here is a company description of their "device":
Fake bomb detectors were being used in Iraq as recently as last month; Businessman Found Guilty...
Fake bomb detectors were being used in Iraq as recently as last month
Iraqi MP says country has paid 'high price in blood' for fake devices, but officials continue to put faith in them
Peter Beaumont
The Guardian, Tuesday 23 April 2013 08.47 EDT
On 19 March this year, the tenth anniversary of George W Bush's declaration of war against Iraq, I was heading into Baghdad's ministry of the interior in search of an official from the inspector general's office who had been involved in the investigation into its purchase of fake bomb detectors.
Arriving at the entrance, a bomb – the first of 12 to explode in the city that day – detonated about a kilometre away.
The officer on the gate explained a few minutes later that just the day before two improvised explosive devices had been found nearby. He asked what we were doing at the ministry. He nodded as I explained. "We know that the detectors are useless," he replied bitterly. "They're fakes. We've seen it on the news."
...
Visiting a checkpoint a few days before the wave of attacks I watched two police officers using the wands in the recommended fashion, halting in the road and shuffling their feet – supposed to build up static electricity – before approaching cars with the device held out.
...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/23/fake-bomb-detectors-used-iraq
Iraqi MP says country has paid 'high price in blood' for fake devices, but officials continue to put faith in them
Peter Beaumont
The Guardian, Tuesday 23 April 2013 08.47 EDT
On 19 March this year, the tenth anniversary of George W Bush's declaration of war against Iraq, I was heading into Baghdad's ministry of the interior in search of an official from the inspector general's office who had been involved in the investigation into its purchase of fake bomb detectors.
Arriving at the entrance, a bomb – the first of 12 to explode in the city that day – detonated about a kilometre away.
The officer on the gate explained a few minutes later that just the day before two improvised explosive devices had been found nearby. He asked what we were doing at the ministry. He nodded as I explained. "We know that the detectors are useless," he replied bitterly. "They're fakes. We've seen it on the news."
...
Visiting a checkpoint a few days before the wave of attacks I watched two police officers using the wands in the recommended fashion, halting in the road and shuffling their feet – supposed to build up static electricity – before approaching cars with the device held out.
...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/23/fake-bomb-detectors-used-iraq
UK businessman found guilty of selling fake bomb detectors to Iraq
Jim McCormick made millions of pounds selling 'completely ineffectual' devices based on novelty golfball finder
Robert Booth and Meirion Jones
The Guardian, Tuesday 23 April 2013 07.49 EDT
A businessman has been found guilty of a multimillion-pound fraud involving the sale of fake bomb detectors to Iraq and around the world.
A jury at the Old Bailey found Jim McCormick, 57, from near Taunton, Somerset, guilty on three counts of fraud over a scam that included the sale of £55m of devices based on a novelty golfball finder to Iraq. They were installed at checkpoints in Baghdad through which car bombs and suicide bombers passed, killing hundreds of civilians. Last month they remained in use at checkpoints across the Iraqi capital.
McCormick, who faces up to eight years in jail when he is sentenced next month, also sold the detectors to Niger, Syria, Mexico and other countries including Lebanon where a United Nations agency was a client.
He claimed they could detect explosives at long range, deep underground, through lead-lined rooms and multiple buildings. In fact, the handheld devices were useless. Their antennae, which purported to detect explosives, and in other cases narcotics, were not connected to anything, they had no power source and one of the devices was simply the golfball finder with a different sticker on it.
...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/23/somerset-business-guilty-fake-bombs
Jim McCormick made millions of pounds selling 'completely ineffectual' devices based on novelty golfball finder
Robert Booth and Meirion Jones
The Guardian, Tuesday 23 April 2013 07.49 EDT
A businessman has been found guilty of a multimillion-pound fraud involving the sale of fake bomb detectors to Iraq and around the world.
A jury at the Old Bailey found Jim McCormick, 57, from near Taunton, Somerset, guilty on three counts of fraud over a scam that included the sale of £55m of devices based on a novelty golfball finder to Iraq. They were installed at checkpoints in Baghdad through which car bombs and suicide bombers passed, killing hundreds of civilians. Last month they remained in use at checkpoints across the Iraqi capital.
McCormick, who faces up to eight years in jail when he is sentenced next month, also sold the detectors to Niger, Syria, Mexico and other countries including Lebanon where a United Nations agency was a client.
He claimed they could detect explosives at long range, deep underground, through lead-lined rooms and multiple buildings. In fact, the handheld devices were useless. Their antennae, which purported to detect explosives, and in other cases narcotics, were not connected to anything, they had no power source and one of the devices was simply the golfball finder with a different sticker on it.
...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/23/somerset-business-guilty-fake-bombs
Here is a company description of their "device":
April 27, 2013
The Debunking of a Missouri Teacher/Principal
John Nail teaches at St. Paul's Lutheran School in Sedalia, MO: http://www.sedaliastpauls.org/staff.php?staffID=25639&
Creationism certainly does undermine education!
Creationism, Kooks
by PZ Myers
Tina Dupuy had a good op-ed published in the Sedalia, Missouri newspaper, titled “Teaching creationism hurts kids, undermines educational system“. Yeah, it does: it prompted some rebuttals that made her case even more strongly. John Nail has some complaints:
...
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/04/25/creationism-certainly-does-undermine-education/
Creationism, Kooks
by PZ Myers
Tina Dupuy had a good op-ed published in the Sedalia, Missouri newspaper, titled “Teaching creationism hurts kids, undermines educational system“. Yeah, it does: it prompted some rebuttals that made her case even more strongly. John Nail has some complaints:
Writer had it dead wrong on debate over teaching creationism
In response to Tina Dupuy column in the April 15 paper entitled “Teaching creationism hurts kids, undermines education system,” I’d like to say, “Phooey!”
From the article it sounds like she has some real issues with her mother. [Cheap shot. Dupuy's article had issues with her mother's fundamentalist dogmatism…just like Nail's] It may be good therapy for her to vent in the column, however she submits NO scientific evidence of the evolution theory [The piece is about how creationism kept her ignorant of science; it's not a scientific treatise]. The only item she mentioned was when she wrote, “There’s plenty of self-evident evidence (see: the flu virus). …”. A virus is not even a living organism. [And yet…they evolve!]
From the Answers in Genesis website (answersingenesis.org/articles/aid/v1/n1/has-it-evolved) [Uh-oh. Not a trustworthy source at all]: “So what should one say if asked, “Is the ‘bird flu’ evolving”? It could be said that the avian influenza genome is evolving only in the sense that it’s continually changing and modifying [Uh, yes? That's evolution!], and not in the sense that it will someday be something other than an influenza virus [It will become a different kind of virus, with different properties. It will not become a chicken, nor does evolution predict that it will]. Yes, influenza viruses do possess a certain degree of variability; however, the amount of genetic information which a virus can carry is vastly limited[So? So's the amount of information in your genome, John Nail -- that we don't have infinite genomes is not an argument against evolution], and so are the changes which can be made to its genome before it can no longer function[Again, limits are what we expect in the real world; show me a system with an absence of limitations on its behavior and maybe I'll start believing in your god].”
...
...
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/04/25/creationism-certainly-does-undermine-education/
April 25, 2013
Additionally, Glen Greenwald is to appear on Bill Moyers Journal this weekend on PBS:
Greenwald: The same motive for anti-US 'terrorism' is cited over and over
The same motive for anti-US 'terrorism' is cited over and over
Ignoring the role played by US actions is dangerously self-flattering and self-delusional
Glenn Greenwald
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 April 2013 11.27 EDT
(updated below - Update II - Update III)
News reports purporting to describe what Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told US interrogators should, for several reasons, be taken with a huge grain of salt. The sources for this information are anonymous, they work for the US government, the statements were obtained with no lawyer present and no Miranda warnings given, and Tsarnaev is "grievously wounded", presumably quite medicated, and barely able to speak. That the motives for these attacks are still unclear has been acknowledged even by Alan Dershowitz last week ("It's not even clear under the federal terrorism statute that this qualifies as an act of terrorism"
and Jeffrey Goldberg on Friday ("it is not yet clear, despite preliminary indications, that these men were, in fact, motivated by radical Islam" .
Those caveats to the side, the reports about what motivated the Boston suspects are entirely unsurprising and, by now, quite familiar:
...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/24/boston-terrorism-motives-us-violence
Ignoring the role played by US actions is dangerously self-flattering and self-delusional
Glenn Greenwald
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 April 2013 11.27 EDT
(updated below - Update II - Update III)
News reports purporting to describe what Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told US interrogators should, for several reasons, be taken with a huge grain of salt. The sources for this information are anonymous, they work for the US government, the statements were obtained with no lawyer present and no Miranda warnings given, and Tsarnaev is "grievously wounded", presumably quite medicated, and barely able to speak. That the motives for these attacks are still unclear has been acknowledged even by Alan Dershowitz last week ("It's not even clear under the federal terrorism statute that this qualifies as an act of terrorism"
and Jeffrey Goldberg on Friday ("it is not yet clear, despite preliminary indications, that these men were, in fact, motivated by radical Islam" .
Those caveats to the side, the reports about what motivated the Boston suspects are entirely unsurprising and, by now, quite familiar:
"The two suspects in the Boston bombing that killed three and injured more than 260 were motivated by the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, officials told the Washington Post.
"Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 'the 19-year-old suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, has told interrogators that the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan motivated him and his brother to carry out the attack,' the Post writes, citing 'US officials familiar with the interviews.'"
...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/24/boston-terrorism-motives-us-violence
Additionally, Glen Greenwald is to appear on Bill Moyers Journal this weekend on PBS:
http://vimeo.com/64753542
http://billmoyers.com/episode/preview-trading-democracy-for-%E2%80%98security%E2%80%99/
http://billmoyers.com/episode/preview-trading-democracy-for-%E2%80%98security%E2%80%99/
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